


Independence

by badly_knitted



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Decisions, Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 10:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13657512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Ten II didn’t ask to be created, but he’ll damn well choose his own destiny.





	Independence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Juliet316](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juliet316/gifts).



> Written for juliet316’s prompt ‘Doctor Who, Ten II, Born from the hand,’ at fic_promptly.
> 
> **Spoilers:** The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End.

Ten II was more than a little miffed. He hadn’t asked for this, hadn’t had any say in it whatsoever, he’d simply been ‘born’ from his other self’s spare hand, which was a bit of a bizarre concept when he thought about it. Who keeps a spare hand anyway? And why?

To his original self, the fully Time Lord one, it had no doubt seemed a neat and handy trick, if you’ll excuse the pun, a way of cheating regeneration and keeping the face he’d grown accustomed to over however long it had been since his previous regeneration. That information was sure to be in Ten II’s head somewhere, along with everything else his other self knew, and a good dollop of Donna Noble as well. It was just all jumbled together at the moment.

The point was, the other Doctor had just done this to him without a by your leave, and now here he was, alive, half Time Lord and half human, and about to be thrown aside like he didn’t matter. The TARDIS and all of time and space were his birthright, but while his fully Time Lord self would get to continue with that existence, Ten II was to be tossed into an alternate universe, whether that was what he wanted or not. 

Worse, he was all but being shoved at poor Rose as a consolation prize for her helping to save all the universes. She’d fought her way back into her own universe, and back to the Doctor’s side, and now she was being rejected just as much as he was. That wasn’t fair on either of them. Where did the Doctor get off thinking that he knew best for everyone? Or that he had the right to order them about?

There was little point in arguing or protesting though, Ten II knew enough about the man he’d been and whose memories he shared to know that once his mind was made up, he was as stubborn and intransigent as a Dalek. Someone should have a word with him about his superiority complex and massive ego. Ten II smiled slightly; at least he had Donna’s common sense to temper his other self’s worst qualities, if only in that respect he could consider himself the better man. 

With that in mind, he decided he was going to bow out gracefully, go where he was sent, and hopefully make a good life for himself in however much time he had; his human half would mean he only had a finite existence, and no hope of regenerating at the end of it. But from now on he’d do things because he chose to, not because the person he used to be, and who had in effect created him, ordered him to.

As for Rose… Ten II shared his counterpart’s love for the young human woman, but he wasn’t going to be anyone’s consolation prize. He’d be there for her if she needed him, and if she wanted him to be, but whatever they might come to be to each other in the future would be entirely up to her. They’d both have their independence; it was the least he could do.

The End


End file.
